A message from Fr. Gabriel Romanelli of Holy Family Church in Gaza City
“Hello, brothers and sisters. I hope you are well.
There are certain words that are used very frequently.
Very often, we don’t pay attention to what such words mean. Sometimes they’re worn out through overuse, and their meaning becomes diluted.
One such word is empathy.
Empathy, means putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, suffering with another person, feeling what they feel, and understanding their suffering. And, this is a profoundly Christian concept.
In the Letter of Saint James the Apostle, he says
‘What good is it, if someone claims to have faith but does nothing about it? Such faith is worthless. Suppose someone comes to you in need of clothes or something to eat, and you say to them, ‘God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat,’ but you don’t give them the things they need? If you don’t help them, your words are worthless.’
He gives an example that should be a model to follow.
It’s the same with empathy, this capacity to feel what others feel. Empathy should not be merely an emotional experience. Yet this is how the word, the concept, has become distorted. It has been reduced to just an emotion.
But empathy must lead to action for it to become love.
And often acts of love, acts of charity, aren’t accompanied by strong feelings - neither feelings of sorrow, pleasure, or joy. Some are performed without any strong emotion. In fact, I’d say many good deeds are like this.
Like a mother caring for her child, or a father looking after his son or daughter - sometimes there is great joy in doing it, and thanks be to God for that.
But other times, they feel nothing, or they may not want to do what’s necessary, but they do it anyway.
So which is love? The pleasant emotion, or the act of doing?
Like with the brother or sister who has no warm clothing and no food. There are many people who dedicate themselves to serving them. They go out at night, walking through the streets, giving food or something warm to drink to homeless people.
And what do they experience emotionally? Sometimes happiness, often they just feel cold, tired, or distressed.
As humans our spirituality includes our emotions. It includes our bodies. So empathy is good and necessary but it must move us to perform acts of love.
Which brings us to the case of war and to what is happening here and now.
We must have empathy for all its victims, especially the most innocent. Which is why children are so often mentioned.
If the suffering of a child does not move you, or you try to dismiss that suffering by misattributing guilt - that is monstrous.
It goes against , against love, faith, and common sense. Even against international law.
Like the children from an Israeli kibbutz, murdered in the attacks of October 7th, or those who died in captivity, away from their homes and families, brought to the Gaza Strip, and died here.
That is atrocious.
But we must also be moved by the suffering of Palestinian children, in the West Bank and Gaza.
All Palestinian children, both Muslim and Christian.
Tomorrow, it’s three years since the bombing of Saint Porphyrius Church.
They killed many children there.
And many more of the innocents killed during this war are the children from Muslim families.
More than 20,000 children have been killed.
We must feel empathy and must feel compassion…
But we have to act!
Because our feelings are only good when they move us to act.
Compassion that is only a feeling, is dead. It serves for nothing.
We must act as men and women of faith, filled with love, striving to do what is right despite our faults. But we must do it in our words and our actions!
Unfortunately, the situation here continues to be very bad.
I wish, for once, I could give you different news.
There are around 25 significant bombings or explosions, every day throughout the Gaza Strip. We have heard several here throughout today and last night.
Shrapnel from explosions still reach us. Thanks God, no-one is hurt. But nobody knows what will happen.
The entire area is on fire, engulfed in flames.
Yet the world says about stopping this war.
We pray the international community will have compassion and put an end to the destruction. The people here want to build a future - a future founded on justice, recognition, and forgiveness.
This may sound like utopian dreams, but they are not impossible dreams.
Today thank God, our classrooms, kindergarten, and school were full and the children unharmed. After school, we had activities at the oratory and and we had Mass.
May Almighty God bless you from Gaza.
Amen.
Goodbye, and until tomorrow, God willing.”
The images and transcript are from the official channel of Father Gabriel Romanelli, an Argentine priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, who serves at the Holy Family Latin Catholic Parish in Gaza.
He has been in the Middle East for more than 27 years. After joining the Institute of the Incarnate Word in 1988, he was ordained a deacon in Egypt in 1996 and then spent four years in Jordan as a parish vicar.
He also served as Provincial Superior for the Middle East and Africa.
Links
This page allows you to make a donation to the Christians of the Holy Family Parish from anywhere in the world (all you need is a credit card). Donations are made in US dollars.
https://vozcatolica.com/ayudagz
Canal de WhatsApp whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb2vWsf6GcGFgocy3m1f
Canal de Telegram t.me/boost/PGRomanelli
Facebook facebook.com/share/1FQPsX59WZ
Instagram instagram.com/gabrielromanellisivori